[Linux] FreeGeek or ByteWorks in South FL?

[Adam Glass]

On 3/16/07, Robert Citek <robert.citek@gmail.com> wrote:
> Which brings us
> to the challenge: is there a sensible way for a small group of people
> (<10) to support a hundred Linux newbies?
>
> Just throwing out some models:
>
> - paid support (e.g. Red Hat)
> - community support (e.g. LUG mailing list)
> - combination of community and paid support (e.g. Linspire)
>
> Given the target audience, those that could not afford a computer, are
> these models even appropriate?  That is, would we need to come up with
> more creative models?

I think paid support is right out.  A family unable to afford a
computer certainly will have higher priorities for funds than tech
support.  They'd end up shoving the PC into a corner and going to the
library to use a Windows machine.

Community support returns to the same long-term volunteer issues
mentioned before.  It takes a certain skill set to do e-mail support
for newbies, and it is time consuming.  Again the result is most of
the work falling onto a small group of people, which is not
sustainable in the long run.

Even then, there will still be plenty of occasions when the problem
just can't be solved via e-mail.  Oh yeah, and what happens when the
newbie's only way to access email support is via the Linux box that
won't connect to the internet?  There still has to be a phone number
to call.

Once again, I think this is the kind of thing that requires a very
large pool of skilled folks willing to put in a long term commitment.
Places like Silicon Valley and other areas with large tech employers
might be able to do it... IBM, Intel, etc.  It would be nice to have
that ability here too, but we just don't.

--Adam